My Tinnitus Probably Started from a Viral Fever

Hey everyone.

I had tinnitus since Nov 12th 2017. I woke up in the morning with pain in my left ear. I yawned and streched, suddenly there was a loud pop sound in my left ear and it was horribly painful, it started ringing and I can't hear well on my left ear. It was 3 am at that time. Since nothing is open at 3 am, I waited until 8 am and went to the nearest clinic. The doctor checked inside my left ear and said probably an ant went in and stung my ear as she could see some reddish scratches. She gave antibiotic ear drop, some pain reducer and inflammation meds.

3 days later, pain reduced but I still can't hear well plus ringing was loud. Went to a second clinic and the doctor checked my left ear again. He said that there is an internal bleeding. He was shocked and immediately wrote a referral letter to an ENT specialist in a hospital.

Went to the hospital to see the ENT specialist. He did some history checking, checked the inside of my left ear and my nasal cavity. Physical wise, everything is fine. I also recalled having virul fever the week before; the kind of fever that your whole skin is painful upon slight touch, like when patting your skin with towel after bathing. It was really painful. To investigate further, I was hopitalized for a week under the first diagnosis: Sudden onset sensorineural hearing loss. While waiting for the admission, I developed facial neuritis and the pain worsen and spread to my right side of face and head.

I had some tests run; MRI, CT scan, audiometry, blood & urine tests. From the MRI and CT scan, they figured out that I had acute mastoiditis. There was a virus infection in my porous bone in my left innermost ear.

I undergone antivirul, antibiotic and steroid treatment, along with B12 injection and piracetam (this one, after being discharged from the hospital). Had hyperacusis for about 2 weeks in the mean time which went away on its own afterwards. Headache and pop sounds come and go as well. I had hyperacusis for about 2.5 years long 6 years ago which went away on its own. I wondered if that was related to this.

Now, the pain, pop sound, hyperacusis, facial neuritis and headache are gone. My hearing has gotten back to normal. I have completed my antibiotic and antivirul dose so the doctor will not prescribe anymore medicine. They said this is curable but was not sure how long it might take as this has something to do with my nerve. I just stopped my piracetam dose yesterday and I sincerely hope that my tinnitus would somehow go away one day.

I am currently planning to try zinc but need to investigate further about this. I pray that we all will break free from tinnitus. :')

 

Welcome to the forum. I am not a doctor so I can't comment much about the problem in your ears and the virus infection. But Zinc, Magnesium, B12, D3 etc. are often recommended to help. Can you sleep well and do you need masking? Your T is very new. So give it some time. Try read the success stories to give you hope and hopefully can help you to be more calm and positive which is helpful to reduce T. Take care. God bless.

 

Hi Billie. Thank you so much for the motivation! So far, I do not need masking and I can sleep quite well.

 

My tinnitus lessens or stops completely when it is very loud with corticosteroids especially dexamethasone even in low dose.

When my tinnitus is low can stop with Trobalt and with NAC and Taurine.

Of course benzos stop temporarily my tinnitus but after wear off cause worse tinnitus and hyperacusis.

 

Benadryl